Revolutionizing B2B E-Commerce: The Critical Role of Shipping and Packaging
David Morey 
Shipping and packaging play a critical role in the world of B2B e-commerce. Your packaging can impact delivery times, customer satisfaction, and much more. So, working on your packing can improve your company in more ways than one.
Are you ready to learn about revolutionizing your B2B e-commerce brand? Everything you need to know is below!
Improved Delivery Times
Most importantly, your B2B can receive faster delivery times when you adjust your shipping and packaging process.
B2B companies are often wholesalers, meaning you’re shipping out bulk orders. It can be challenging to get the biggest orders out on time.
Changing your shipping and packaging makes wholesale distribution on time possible. Your customers will be more satisfied, and you’ll receive more orders since you’re getting them out faster.
So, here’s how you can improve your delivery times through shipping and packaging:
- Offer more shipping options: Include more delivery options for your customers. They can choose the shipping times and prices that work best for them. For example, offering freight, expedited, and standard shipping.
- Add efficient order consolidation: Combining several orders from the same customer into one shipment can help everything arrive on time. You can even have orders from different warehouses ship together. This method also is better for the environment because it requires fewer delivery vehicles. Order management systems (OMS) are programs that can help you with consolidation.
- Automatic order processing: Warehouse management systems (WMS) can process and send out orders for you. These programs create labels, manage your inventory, and more. They help pick and pack and help orders ship quickly.
- Optimized order packing: Adjusting how you pick and pack orders also drastically impacts the delivery times because you can ship quickly. WMS can help you organize all of your products as efficiently as possible. Putting items that sell together next to each other in the warehouse is a suitable place to start.
So, shipping and packaging processes can impact your delivery times. You want to affect it positively, so think carefully about what areas to work on first.
Added Customization Features
Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash
Next, more customization features have a critical role in B2B e-commerce. You can personalize the packaging to match your brand identity, making it more memorable. Consider adding your brand logo to the boxes and experiment with colored tape.
You can also include personalized touches for the customer. For example, providing product catalogs in their business niche. You can also offer them samples of products you think they could sell. It’s always fun to get a surprise in your order! Thank-you notes are another classic choice.
Packaging also lets you tell a story. The packaging is what your customers see first, so it leaves a strong impression. You can use that to your advantage to communicate what your brand is through visuals.
Lastly, consider adding elements from their brand to the order. You can include samples of items that use their brand logo and colors to make the order more unique to your customer.
Enhanced Delivery Expansion
Expanding where you ship will help you sell to more people. You may even want to start working on international shipping to reach a wider audience. Additionally, utilizing commercial warehouse storage can help ensure faster and more efficient deliveries by strategically placing goods closer to your key markets. This enables businesses to manage inventory better and optimize shipping times.
You’ll need to understand other countries’ rules for packaging so your orders can get through customs without problems.
You can also expand your delivery services by working with more carriers. You should research all your options to see who delivers to where your largest customer bases are. You can also set up more warehouses to provide faster delivery times to those spots.
You’ll also need to provide multiple shipping channels to customers. They’ll select the ones they want, which helps them keep realistic ideas of shipping times in mind.
More Sustainability Benefits
Additionally, you can change your packaging to be more sustainable. This strategy is popular today, so your customers will appreciate it and have a better opinion of your brand.
You can add more sustainability to your shipping and packaging process in a few different ways:
- Use more environmentally friendly packaging materials.
- Use the fastest delivery routes to reduce carbon emissions.
- Use the smallest packaging for orders possible to decrease waste.
- Use minimalist packaging designs to reduce waste.
- Use eco-friendly printing materials like water or soy-based inks.
- Partner with carbon-neutral shipping carriers.
- Post about your sustainability efforts to educate and engage your customers.
Overall, sustainability benefits everyone, so you’ll want to include it in your B2B business practices wherever possible.
They Provide Consistent Improvement
Focusing on your shipping and packaging will offer you constant improvement with your B2B. Customers will be more satisfied since they’ll receive their orders on time.
You’ll need to collect data on your shipping and packaging processes to see where you need to improve. Once you’ve worked on those areas, move on to the remaining ones.
You can also stay current on packaging materials and know what to switch to. For example, new plant-based packaging might be more sustainable. Or, recycled materials might be more cost-efficient for your brand to use.
Take customer feedback through online reviews and surveys to see where you should improve. Focusing on these areas will help your company see growth, so you don’t want to skip it.
Employees Become More Efficient
When you focus on your shipping and packaging processes, your employees become more efficient. For instance, they can pick and pack quickly and accurately, sending out orders fast.
You can achieve this by providing them with as much shipping and packaging training as possible. Role-specific training is a fantastic option because it allows each team member to thrive.
You can also use more hands-on training to give your team the experience they need to succeed. When your employees have more training in shipping and packaging, they can perform better, boosting the brand’s growth overall.
Revolutionize Your B2B With Shipping and Packaging
In short, there are plenty of ways that your shipping and packaging methods impact your B2B brand. These features are critical in online shopping, so you should do your best to improve them wherever you can.
